Medley Relays

[Bazza]

Does anyone know the splits from the British teams for the medley relays yesterday? The official site doesn't have them and I don't know where else might?

[Katie]

Yeah I can't find them either. I had a look on the Australian Swimming site just in case, but they didn't have them listed either.

[Bazza]

Well I couldn't be botherd to wait for SwimNews to get their backsides in gear so I rewound the video and took the splits from there:

Men; 3.38.87 (-1.86)

Adam Ruckwood 56.66 (+0.68)
Adam Whitehead 60.52 (-2.07)
James Hickman 52.66 (+0.44)
Matthew Kidd 49.03 (-0.91)

Women; 4.05.65 (-1.01)

Sarah Price 1.01.62 (-0.22)
Kate Haywood 1.09.53 (-0.33)
Georgina Lee 59.67 (-0.18)
Karen Legg 54.83 (-0.28)

As you can see the women were consistently slightly under the previous splits. Price is the only remaining member of the team which held the previous record (King/Jackson/Brett). As for the men well Adam Ruckwood wasn't up to the pace of Martin Harris' split in Kuala Lumpur, and Hickman was slower, but Adam Whitehead was 2 whole seconds faster than Darren Mew's split and Matt Kidd (what a swim) was nearly a second up on Gavin Meadows.

The good news is significant improvements can be made. In the men, if a backstroker could get back down to those 55's (Tait is maybe the best bet right now) and Hickman could return to his best form we have the ability to swim 3.36 or below, and for the women, we know Sarah Price can drop at least 0.6, whilst Haywood should be able to improve in another year and in the freestyle someone could go 54 low I reckon - maybe Sheppard? or if Rolph gets back into it? So that's a 4.04 or faster. Of course the bad news is Australia are already swimming those times or faster. And Germany I believe went 4.01 to win the Europeans. Then there's the yanks... (I'm not being negative or anything!!):D

[swimusa]

Sheppard cannot go 54, let alone 54 low. She is a better 50'er than 100'er. It would either be Legg, or Pickering unless Rolph returns to the scene. When is she due back to form? Is she even swimming meets at this time?

[swimusa]

We yanks have to regroup. With the loss of Dara Torres, and Natalie Coughlin being both our backstroke and bufferfly queen, we'll have to see who can fill in some gaps for Athens. Jenny Thompson though is swimming pretty well, for coming out of retirement.

[Katie]

If someone's already said this sorry but I'm getting confused. But I know Matt Kidd's split was 48.5 if that helps anyone!

[Bazza]

Matt Kidd's split was 49.03. Well that's according to the BBC information. I doubt he went 48.5 as that would be 1.2s under his BR (although it would be nice if he had!).

As for Sheppard, she has split 54.9 in a relay (womens 4x1 British record swim). That's compared to 54.9 Brett and 54.6 Rolph. Pickering swam 56.0 leading off, so she can do the 54's. I guess you could argue that since then if anything she has specialised even further in the 50's. That show's how much we could do with Rolph - Legg just split 54.8 but Rolph swam 54.6 4/5 years ago!

Rolph competed just before trials (March?), narrowly missing out on the QTs. I don't think she was anywhere near fitness, but would assume this season she would be aiming to get back near her best?

[Katie]

Matt Kidd went 48.5. I think he would know!!! Very fast though.

[swimusa]

Originally posted by bazzaroodoo
Matt Kidd's split was 49.03. Well that's according to the BBC information. I doubt he went 48.5 as that would be 1.2s under his BR (although it would be nice if he had!).

As for Sheppard, she has split 54.9 in a relay (womens 4x1 British record swim). That's compared to 54.9 Brett and 54.6 Rolph. Pickering swam 56.0 leading off, so she can do the 54's. I guess you could argue that since then if anything she has specialised even further in the 50's. That show's how much we could do with Rolph - Legg just split 54.8 but Rolph swam 54.6 4/5 years ago!

Rolph competed just before trials (March?), narrowly missing out on the QTs. I don't think she was anywhere near fitness, but would assume this season she would be aiming to get back near her best?

Can't wait to see her back. I think British swimming falls short in the 100 fly, 100 breast, and 200 IM area right now, and if Rolph gets back on form in Cardiff, you guys can work on filling the holes in the 100 Fly/Breast

[swimusa]

To clarify, that is British women's swimming, and falling short is on a global scale, not commonwealth scale.

[Bazza]

I think British swimming still has lots of gaps on a global scale. Women have strength in backstroke and depth in sprint freestyle, but for me nobody in fly/breast (50+) or IM (200+). Maybe even distance free - Rebeca Cooke's getting there, but wouldn't even havemedalled at Europeans.

Men have breast obviously, and fly if Hickman/Parry find some form again. Foster covers the 50's. Our backstroke is weak at the moment - in transition after the likes of Harris/Ruckwood/Willey. As for freestyle well Kidd's getting there on the 100, and Smith at the other end of the scale, but we miss Palmer in between. As for IMs, hopefully Francis can step up in the next year or two.

Of course everyone has weaknesses. Australia for example are weak(er) in womens back and free, and mens breast. Or were they just shown up by our strengths?:confused:

To Katie, if Matt says he went 48.5 then fair enough. But that's not according to the BBC, and we expect 49 low next time he gets in the water.

[swimusa]

I wouldn't say the Aussie women lack depth in free. Amanda Pascoe, Elka Graham, and Giaan Rooney seem to hold their own through the 200 & 400. I think if you guys could get a breaststroker to go 1:08 for the women, you guys will do well in the medley relay. 1:01 low back, 1:08 mid breast, :59 mid fly, and 54. high free gives you around a 4:03 which the Aussies did.

[sub24]

Sheps split 54.6 on the 4x100fr and 54.9 on the medley. She will probably not go 54 in a flat start because she is going to go 53. Just a matter of time...(no pun intended, he he he:)

[Bazza]

Only one problem SwimUSA - Germany went 4.01 at Europeans!:(

As for Sub24 - we all hope she does (except maybe swimUSA and a couple of the others!). Here's hoping...:cool:

[swimusa]

Britain needs a faster breaststroker and a faster butterflyer to go 4:01

[violet]

Originally posted by bazzaroodoo


Of course everyone has weaknesses. Australia for example are weak(er) in womens back and free, and mens breast. Or were they just shown up by our strengths?:confused:


you are right about the women backstrokers, but freestyle is not that much of a weakness for us.

-jodie henry and alice mills are our rising stars in the sprint freestyle events, not to mention sarah ryan who has been around for ages.
-neither rooney nor graham were swimming their best at this meet. giaan has had back problems, not sure why elka was a bit off. both are 1:58 swimmers and one of them would have probably beaten pickering if they were at their best in the 200.
-amanda pascoe is a promising distance freestyler. not quite up with cooke in the 400/800 distances but i think she went faster in the 1500 than cooke did at the world champs.

also jim piper is a great 200 breast swimmer, with a pb of 2:10.88. he didn't have the best meet though, but still managed to win. he usually isn't too shoddy in the 100 either.